Carnival of Rust
by Saint Mirror
Summary: Someone special is coming to visit the General, and secret relationships will be uncovered. [RoyWinry] [Conquerer of Shamballa AU]


A/N: I felt bad for deleting my other story so I decided to post two separate stories about Roy and Winry instead to make up for it. This is obviously the first of the two. This has taken me what seems like forever, and truly it was a labor of love.

Disclaimer: I in no way own the idea of Fullmetal Alchemist… or any thing else really.

Carnival of Rust

Central's train station was a little too busy for Flame Alchemist Brigadier General Roy Mustang's tastes. For one thing, there were too many anonymous people who might wonder what he was doing waiting here like he was. He hoped those unknown persons would leave before the reason for his waiting stepped off the 3:15 train.

Roy sighed gustily to himself and tried not to fidget under the multitude of stares he was sure were directed his way (though in actuality there were none). Usually when they did this, her mother made sure she rode a late train, that way there'd be minimal chance of anyone spotting him with her. Then he'd take a week off and lavish attention on his small daughter that he only got to see once about every two months.

He sighed again and began to play with one of the buttons on his uniform. Ever since Riza (who couldn't seem to find enough reasons to stay away from him now) had dropped him off at the train station at 2:45, he'd had to keep his fingers from worrying this particular button to death.

'_She can't stay mad at me forever. It's not like I've abandoned them. I just can't go see them all the time.' _Roy mentally shook himself, trying to forget Riza's anger by thinking of his daughter's mother.

'_I'm surprised she let her come to see me this time. Usually she has to be sure Fullmetal is either far far away from Central or that he's coming to visit her.' _It was true, his daughter's mother never let her visit him when Edward Elric came to Central, and it was probably the reason he was so nervous and edgy this time. Fullmetal was due anytime now, and the General didn't want him to see her with him and figure out who's daughter she was. He knew that, if Edward ever found out, there'd be one hell of an explosion.

Ever since Edward had come back from the other side of the gate, he and his brother had been traveling the country helping various people, but in the 3 years he had been back, he had yet to see the General's daughter.

Roy fingered the edge of his eyepatch, and decided that he no longer cared. It was the mother who really cared what the short Alchemist thought, and as long as he did nothing to harm his family, Roy couldn't care less.

Shrugging, Roy put his hands in his pockets and lifted his head to check the time on the huge clock. 3:13, two minutes to go…or not.

Roy tensed as he watched the train pull in, hissing and whining as it moved over the metal tracks, and out of habit, braced himself. The doors opened, and she ran to him, squealing in happiness. She was all eyes. Onyx eyes, an exact match to his own, gazed up at him. Roy smiled and bent down to her level, holding his arms out to her. She ran into his arms and his vision was filled with her soft blonde hair.

"Daddy! Daddy! I missed you!" Roy's heart clenched at her sweet tone.

"I missed you too, Sarah. Did you have a nice train ride?" His daughter nodded enthusiastically.

"Yeah. I made friends with two Alchemist brothers! See them behind me?" Roy felt his spine stiffen involuntarily. He forced himself to look up, knowing that there weren't too many pairs of Alchemist brothers in Amestris.

Sure enough, Ed and Al Elric stood about 5 feet behind his daughter, both gaping in wide-eyed shock at him.

Roy rose holding Sarah securely to him, and smiled faintly when she wrapped her arms tightly around his neck. The smile faded from his features as he approached Al who had his young daughter's bag held firmly in his hand.

Supporting Sarah with his right hip and arm, he looked intently at the two brothers, almost daring them to say something about him holding the girl. Looking away for less than a second, Roy smirked at the surprised expression writ on Fullmetal's face.

"If you're going to hold her things, you might as well come with me and spare me the trouble of finding you later." Roy turned and without looking to see if they were following, started toward his home. The Elric brothers stood there in shock before the youngest Elric ran after the retreating General's back leaving his older brother to scramble after them.

Roy calmly listened to the excited chattering of his young daughter. Halfway home, Sarah finally succumbed to exhaustion and fell asleep, her head resting in the crook of his neck.

Edward scowled deeply beside Al. It had been bugging him ever since they had met the 5 year old on the train. As soon as she told them that she was going to visit her Alchemist daddy in Central and that her daddy had only one eye because he lost the other one shortly before she was born, Ed had immediately thought of his black-haired superior. Nothing he knew about the General, though, could prepare him for the sight of the Flame Alchemist so tenderly holding a child.

Ed had noticed on the train that, except for her eyes, the young girl looked exactly like his friend Winry when she was 5. It didn't make any sense to Ed.

"Why haven't I seen her before, Mustang?" The General kept moving through the crowds. Al touched his brother's shoulder with his left hand, silently warning him to be patient.

"If you came back more often, you would have seen her long before now." Ed growled at the Alchemist's impassive tone. Al, ever the voice of reason, spoke up.

"Why doesn't she live with you, General Mustang?"

"Yeah. How do you explain that, Mustang?" Roy didn't so much as break stride as he turned off the main sidewalk and onto a residential one.

"How do you know she doesn't?" Almost as if he could feel the suspicious stares of the two brothers, he sighed and said, "She lives with her mother." Was it Ed's imagination or did Mustang sound a little reluctant when he said that?

'_I hope that satisfied Fullmetal. Though I never really cared if he knew about us, Winry would destroy me if I tell him I got her pregnant.' _He had never thought a truer thing. Winry's greatest fear these days was that Ed would hate her for having the Flame Alchemist's child. Not that she didn't love Roy and Sarah, she just didn't know how her life-long friend would take it and was loathe to find out.

"Yo! Mustang! I asked you a question!" Roy stopped and turned to look at Ed, a confused look fixed on his still handsome features.

"You did?" Roy shrugged and picked a piece of lint from his daughter's yellow sun dress and turned to resume walking.

"Sorry, Fullmetal, must not have heard you up here." Roy snorted softly in amusement when the shorter Alchemist began to rant.

"Quit calling me short, you bastard!!" Roy chuckled lowly in his throat, amused that it only took a short joke to make the younger male forget what he'd asked and walked up the steps of a small house.

Digging in his pockets for the key, Roy glanced back at the two brothers before unlocking the door. Calmly stepping in the dark house, Roy felt for the light switch on the wall; finding it, he deftly flicked it, lighting the interior of his small living room.

"Have a seat, Elrics. I'll be back soon. Oh I'll take that bag, Alphonse." Roy then disappeared in the hallway between the kitchen and living room. The brothers sat down on one of Mustang's couches, an uncomfortable silence filling the room. Edward shifted awkwardly beside his brother, praying something would happen to relieve him of the tension. His wish was granted when the phone in the kitchen abruptly started ringing.

"I'll get it!" Ed instantly jumped up and ran toward the kitchen. Curious, he picked it up.

"Roy? I was just calling to see if you and Sarah were home yet." It sounded like Winry. Ed felt his throat constricting.

"W-Winry?" He faintly heard a gasp on the other end, and he could see Al's surprised face in his peripheral vision.

"Ed? What are you doing there?" Ed held the phone at arms length was staring at it like it was a poisonous insect. He turned, phone in hand, and stared at Al, a similar look of shock on his brother's face.

"Who's that on the phone, Fullmetal?" The Elrics turned away from each other and stared at the General. Edward held the phone out to him.

"It's Winry." An expression, somewhere between relief and horror, flickered across the General's face before it smoothed back into the impassive mask Edward was used to. Reluctantly it seemed the Flame Alchemist went to take the phone from Edward. Almost hesitantly, he put it to his ear.

"Hello? Yes, I just put her to bed, the train ride always makes her sleepy." He paused and glanced at the two bothers. "Yes that was Edward. I'll explain, Winry, don't worry. I'll call you later. Love you, too." Roy hung up gently and waited for the explosion. When none came, he sighed but didn't turn around, the sound loud in the quiet. His back to them, the General spoke.

"So now you know." His deep voice was filled with an unnamed emotion. Edward tightly clenched his hands, hoping he could keep control of his anger long enough to find out what the _hell _Winry was doing calling Mustang's house. He also hadn't missed that last little part of their conversation, but he would get to that later.

Ed glanced at his brother and took a deep breath knowing Al wouldn't have a clue as to how to deal with someone as tricky as the General could be.

"Now we know. My question is: what is your relationship with her, and why the fuck is Winry's kid calling you daddy?" Roy turned and stared hard at Ed, his black as midnight eyes boring into Ed's golden ones. Neither Alchemist noticed Al who now stood as a silent spectator to this battle.

"The reason Winry's child is calling me daddy is because…I am her daddy, Fullmetal. And my relationship with Winry…well…" The Flame Alchemist's voice rumbled out of his chest sounding very much like distant thunder, and Ed vaguely wondered if it was a product of the once Colonel's maturing or was it the price he'd paid for all the friends he'd lost due to the horror that had been the homunculus's war; the grief now a permanent part of his voice . But this speculative thought was quickly overshadowed as Ed finally processed what Roy had said.

Perhaps Al didn't want his brother to harm the father of that sweet little girl they had met on the train, or perhaps he was just tired of seeing his brother go off on the General when he felt that most of it was generally undeserved, at any rate Al strode up to his brother and placed a hand on his shoulder, pulling him back as he did so. When Ed turned to him with an incredulous expression on his face, Al pursed his lips and said, "Calm down, brother. I want to hear what General Mustang has to say, and he can't tell us if you insist on trying to fight him for things that have already happened."

Shocked into silence, Edward stared at Al. Roy silently raised an eyebrow at Al but did not say anything about the shy brother's interference. Instead he sighed, ran his hands over his face and walked to the living room. The Elric brothers silently followed him. They all sat down, the Elrics on the couch and Roy in a chair to the left of them. Roy sighed again. When he spoke, his deep voice was muffled because he was holding his face in his hands.

"Sarah and Winry are my family now. They have been for 5 years." He paused as though unsure how to continue. "It started shortly after Maes died. I avoided Gracia and Elysia a lot back then." He sighed wretchedly disgusted with himself. "Winry needed someone to be there for her again, and I needed her, and when she told me she was pregnant, I couldn't leave her."

"So the only reason you stay with her is because you were stupid enough to get her pregnant and not because you love her?" Edward's voice came out quiet, and both the other Alchemists tensed up knowing what it meant.

"At first it was the only reason, but now…now it's different." Roy leaned back in his chair and regarded Ed wearily.

Ed snapped.

"YOU KILLED HER PARENTS!!! HOW COULD SHE POSSIBLY EVER FEEL ANYTHING FOR YOU AFTER KNOWING THAT!"

Roy didn't move from his spot. Instead his entire body seemed to sigh, and Ed almost flinched at how much pain he heard in that one sound.

"Yes, I killed her parents. In my life, I'm sure I've killed many kids' parents. I could say I was just following orders when I shot them. I could say that washes the sin of what I did away, but…I feel every single death weighing down on my every step, but Winry saw past that. She…she sees me." Roy growled at himself. "I don't know why she's with me. I'll never know. And you shouldn't care because you left her all alone, and if you really cared for her you'd be happy because she is happy."

Ed abruptly stood, unable to bear the sound of the General's voice any longer.

"Brother-?"

"Come on, Al. We're leaving." Without looking to see if Al was following, Edward left the General's home.

After apologizing for his brother, though the sight of the older man's wretched form worried Al more than it probably should and he really wanted to stay and help soldier/Alchemist, Al also ran out of Mustang's home, worry for his brother in his every breath. Finally catching up with his older brother, Al pulled him to a stop only to let him go when he saw the tears running down his face.

"Brother…what's…why are you crying?" Ed said nothing but ran down one of Central's many back alleys and sank to the ground holding his head in his hands in a way eerily similar to what the General had been doing only moments before. Al cautiously sat down next to his brother. He wanted, desperately, to ask what was wrong, but knew that it would be better to stay silent, knowing that Ed would speak in his own time. After what seemed like hours, Ed spoke haltingly.

"I…I thought she'd wait for me…for us." Ed shook his head, shaking off the foolish thought and his brother's questions at the same time. "I've never been good with girls…women, but I should have known something like this would happen. That girl is 5!! That means they might have been together before I even crossed the gate…she was probably pregnant when we were all at Pinako's that last time…he probably knew then that she was going to…" Ed swallowed with apparent difficulty, "…He knew she was going to…have his kid…" The hands holding his head up grabbed his hair and started to pull in an attempt to keep more unwanted tears from falling. Al swallowed the lump that had formed in his throat at his usually strong brother's words.

"Brother…why does this hurt you so bad? It-It's not like you love her…right?" Al hoped with all his heart that it was not so because that would be the cruelest of all ironies: to love someone but know they're lost to you because they're with the one _they_ love.

Edward lost the battle with the wayward tears, through them his voice came thickly and with miserable acceptance, "I do, but…she loves Mustang, and no matter what my feelings for him are, I want her to be happy even…even if the person that makes her happy isn't me." Al crouched next to his brother, at a loss for words. He touched Ed's shoulder hoping it would convey all the things he had no words to say. Through that incomprehensible link they shared, Al sensed it did.

After a time, Ed lifted his face from his hands, the sun hitting his tear-stained face and making it glow. He offered a somewhat watery smile to Al and said, "Come on…we promised Elysia we'd visit…remember?" Al grinned and stood pausing to help Ed up as well.

"How could I ever forget something as important as that, Brother?" Smiling, they both took off at a light jog to the home of another sweet little blonde girl they knew.

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-- If the end sentence made no sense to you, fear not…I'm not quite sure what it meant either. Anyway, I hope this makes up for deleting the other thing I did, and I'll get to work on the other one soon.


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